Mendicant orders and their mission in America

Abstract

Geographical discoveries and papal bulls gave the monarchies of the Iberian Peninsula an opportunity to expand the European Culture along with an obligation to respect and Christianize indigenous population. The authorities used religious orders as settlers, for with about 15,000 members, never over 20,000, including Brazil, in about three centuries brought culture to more than 14.500.000 km2 through strategies such as the mission cities which gave the continent a consolidated urban network. That strategy of the mission cities was also used by protestant Moravian missions in the anglo-saxon colonization. Likewise, the founding of mission cities by the mendicant orders, especially Franciscans, continued to work after the independence of South America, as can be proved with the testimony given by José Maria Vila, Franciscan missionary in Peruvian and Brazilian soil between 1875 and 1880. This paper encloses a full bibliography which indicates the perspectives research which are taking place nowadays.